Vatican Tells Catholics to End Aid to Amnesty

June 26, 2007 06:28 PM

by
findingDulcinea Staff

In response to a statement by Amnesty International supporting the right to abortion for women who've suffered rape or incest, the Vatican has called on Catholics worldwide to stop donating money to the organization.

The Catholic Church believes that all human life is sacred, and that the sanctity begins at the moment of conception. So when Amnesty International announced its support of legal access to abortion for victims of rape, incest, and violence, or when the mother's health is at risk, the Vatican denounced the group for promoting abortion.

Since the announcement, the Vatican has officially requested that all Catholic groups, nongovernmental organizations, parishes, schools, and individuals stop donating money to the group.

Amnesty has defended its position, saying that it neither advocates for abortion as a universal right nor takes any moral position on the procedure.

However, the president of the Roman Catholic Church's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace Cardinal Renato Martino maintains that the group's policy change (Amnesty's original stance spoke out against forced abortions), "has betrayed its mission to promote and protect human rights."

This isn't the first time the Vatican has outspokenly denounced a humanitarian group for its position on abortion. In 1996, the Vatican withdrew funding from UNICEF after it learned that the group had distributed contraceptive pills to rape victims during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The controversy highlights an increasing overlap between the moral codices of the Church and the arena of political debate, a phenomenon that has gained special attention in the United States. In May, Pope Benedict XVI said that all Catholic politicians who support abortion rights should be banned from taking communion, sparking debates all over the country as to whether the Church should be so explicitly political.

Cardinal Renato Martino said that "to justify [abortion] selectively, in the event of rape, that is to define an innocent child in the belly of its mother as an enemy, as 'something one can destroy'." In response, Amnesty's deputy secretary general, Kate Gilmore, told Reuters news agency that the "the Catholic Church, through a misrepresented account of our position on selective aspects of abortion, is placing in peril work on human rights."

In a June 1st interview with the National Catholic Register, Cardinal Renato Martino said that "Catholic organizations must withdraw their support [from Amnesty International]; because, in deciding to promote abortion rights, AI has betrayed its mission." The oft-cited comments were the first mention of what has since become a Vatican-supported Catholic boycott of the human rights organization.

In a June 14th press release, Amnesty International refuted Cardinal Martino's claim that the organization was promoting abortion rights, stating that Amnesty's "actual policy … is to support the decriminalisation of abortion, to ensure women have access to health care when complications arise from abortion and to defend women's access to abortion . . . when their health or human rights are in danger."

Addressing the controversy before Cardinal Martino's comments, Amnesty's Secretary-General Irene Khan told Qatar's The Peninsula that the group is not following a political agenda: "Amnesty has been working on violence against women. Crimes like rape and domestic violence are going unchallenged. We have seen this human rights scandal . . . We are not a women's rights group or a religious group. We are a human rights organisation," Khan said.

Long-time human rights activist and Amnesty International supporter Jesuit Father Daniel Berrigan has publicly renounced Amnesty, saying that "one cannot support an organization financially or even individually that is contravening something very serious in our ethic.”

Kate Gilmore, Amnesty International's executive deputy secretary general, defended the organization's new stance, responding to Vatican criticism. "We have to articulate a response to pregnancies resulting from violence," Gilmore said. "If you're pregnant as a result of rape, you should, without force, fear or coercion, be able to make a choice whether to continue that pregnancy or not."

John-Henry Westen of LIfeSiteNews.com disagrees with Amnesty International's new stance on abortion, writing that the group "should get with the human rights movement of the 21st century, and take a look at rights for the unborn. Around the world people are waking up to the need to protect the right to life of unborn children ... [an] embryonic child is deserving of basic human rights like you and me."

TheNational Catholic Register states that Amnesty International's stance uses "loophole language that allows abortion at any time for any reason." The editorial explains that because Amnesty is now advocating for a woman's right to an abortion" in cases where the mother’s health or life were in danger. Legally, of course, that means they promote any abortion for any reason—because pregnancy is always related to the health and future life of the mother."

The Independent writes that "the Catholic Church's doctrines on female reproductive rights are doing considerable damage around the world. Abortion bans harm victims of rape in several countries. Many are forced to put their lives at risk in back-street operations. The World Health Organisation estimates that 68,000 women around the world die each year from illegal abortions ... And the destruction wrought in Aids–ravaged Africa by the Church's opposition to condoms is well documented."

In a letter written in response to the above-mentioned editorial from The Independent, Jon O'Brien of Catholics for a Free Choice writes ndividual Catholics are unlikely to obey the cardinal's instruction to stop funding Amnesty International over its recent decision to support reproductive rights, given that we have long followed our own consciences and split from the Vatican's line on a host of issues, from contraception and abortion to the right to divorce and gay rights."

In 1996, the Roman Catholic Church withdrew its funding from the United Nations' children's fund UNICEF, after it discovered that the group had given the "morning after" pill to rape victims during the Bosnia-Herzegovina war.

In its newly drafted stance on reproductive rights, Amnesty International states that it "supports women in claiming their rights. The lived experience of girls and women including of those with whom we work directly, shows how central are sexual and reproductive rights to their freedoms including their right to be free from gender-based violence and as a remedy where they have been subjected to such violence." Amnesty's Web site offers the full text of their stance.

Amnesty International is a non-governmental organization (NGO) whose stated objective is the impartial protection of international human rights. The group states that it is independent of economic, political and religious interests. Amnesty was founded by British lawyer and Catholic convert Peter Benenson in 1961.

The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, of which Cardinal Martino is the president, was first established after a proposal during the Second Vatican Council. The stated objective of the council is to "promote justice and peace in the world in light of the Gospel and of the social teaching of the Church." The Vatican's official Web site has a profile.

In early May, Pope Benedict XVI announced that Catholic politicians who support abortion rights should be barred from taking Communion. Although the pope's comments did not single out any particular politicians, Republican presidential candidate, and supporter of abortion rights, Rudy Giuliani said "I do not get into debates with the pope. That is not a good idea, and not just because I am a Catholic."

Eighteen Catholic Democratic Congressman took issue with the Pope's statements about pro-choice politicians, saying that his words "offend the very nature of the American experiment." The Congressmen's statements incited a number of responses from Catholic Bishops across the country who argue that the Church has the right to challenge public officials on issues of morality.